Various automated palletizers have heretofore been developed for stacking bags of material or the like on pallets. Generally the bags are conveyed to the palletizer where they are oriented at a loading area to form a single layer of bags in a desired pattern. The formed layer pattern is then generally squared and transferred to stripper or draw plates which are separable for depositing the layer of bags onto an elevated pallet located below the stripper plates on a pallet elevator. The elevated pallet is then lowered in increments by the pallet elevator as the bags are continuously stacked in layers of alternating patterns until a full pallet load is obtained.
The present invention is directed to a palletizer of this type that is simple to operate and suitable for palletizing a variety of bag sizes. In addition, the palletizer of the present invention is provided with improved apparatus for flattening the bags, for orienting the bags into tight patterns for stacking, and for depositing and compressing layers of alternating patterns on the pallet.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic bag palletizer for stacking bags of material or the like on pallets.
Another object of the present invention is to provide improved apparatus for flattening the material within the bags prior to palletizing.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an automatic bag palletizer capable of palletizing different sized bags and characterized by improved apparatus for orienting the bags, for squaring the oriented bags into a layer of a desired pattern, for depositing the formed layer onto a pallet, and for compressing the stacked bag layers on the pallet.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an automatic bag palletizer of a low-cost construction that is simple to operate.